Tuesday, October 13, 2015

NE ME QUITTE PAS

I wonder if this song could ever be written, much less sung, at the
present time?
The last few lines especially - would any self-respecting
woman or man nowadays dare to say:Let me become The shadow of your shadowThe shadow of your hand The shadow of your dog

Nevertheless
these are emotions which many people still feel, whether expressed or
not. Nobody ever did it better than Jacques Brel in his terrific
original, unpolished version - shared here from YouTube.

I've recorded myself intoning it just now, you can listen to it here .

My translation below is far from perfect but better than the awful ones I've seen via Google.

The answer to that first question is yes, a firm affirmative. Self-respecting people (I'm not sure I've ever met one) have been known to fall in love and love - other than for total exhibitionists - is a private state where anything may said and/or done so long as it doesn't frighten the horses.

I'm familiar with this song even though it isn't to my taste. The pathos is rather too pronounced and the performance somewhat self-conscious. I prefer an admixture of wit and that's a word the French have difficulty with. None of the translations I've seen get anywhere near its complex meaning; come to think of it none of the definitions (ie, in English) are entirely satisfactory either.

I think it's courageous of you translate it. The short sentences are a snare and a delusion since their very shortness lays them open to wide interpretations. I checked an independent translation with French and English side by side and there's a point at which the word "now" enters the meaning in one of the repetitions even though the French words do not change. Apparently it's understood, though not by me.

You've done a good job though obviously you don't need me to tell you. Characteristically you tell us yourself. Where would all be without a grain of self-confidence?

Talking of which I had a hubristic period when I thought I'd have a go at translations, long before my blog came to your notice, when it was in any case called Works Well. I posted a very long semi-academic piece on the inadequacies of French translations of Shakespeare which was like shooting fish in a barrel. As a climax I eschewed echt Shakespeare and translated a Shakespearean-format sonnet I'd written myself. Some people were kind, others kinder still by remaining silent.

I even went a stage further and recorded the sonnet (in English) and posted it. But I'm over all that now.

Robbie, I'm glad you see the difficulties in translating this. I admit that Brel's performance of this song is self-conscious and the pathos leans towards bathos. I still like it a lot, but he's done better ("Amsterdam" for ex.)It's really a challenge to find English equivalents for some phrases that sound perfectly natural in French - eg:"Il est paraît-il des terres brûlées..." Could be literally translated as: "They say there are burnt lands (earths?)..." Not good!

" there's a point at which the word "now" enters the meaning in one of the repetitions" I too don't see where that is understood. The only difference in the repetitions of "Ne me quitte pas" is at the end, where he adds "Mais....ne me quitte pas".

However, I rather like to imagine, once she has given him something like Ellena's very apposite answer, him giving a Gallic shrug, saying to himself 'it was worth a try' (to which you can doubtless supply a better French equivalent than I can), lighting up a Gauloise and cherching the next femme.

I like your translation, though I've not troubled to scrutinise it in parallel.

Lucy,you've said it, that's exactly the point! But I doubt that Brel, at least at that young stage in his life, would have given the Gallic shrug to la femme qui le quittait. Having read something of his history, he would have been too much in love to take it lightly.